Nokia FIS World Cup Ischgl Slalom Results

December 01, 2000

With the season’s first Parallel Slalom the 2000/2001 Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup was continued today in Ischgl. French riders Mathieu Bozzetto and Karine Ruby brought the French team a double victory.

Right in time for the official Ischgl season opening the resort was covered with sunshine and the participants of the season’s first Parallel Slalom faced perfect. Reigning overall World Cup champion Mathieu Bozzetto who had missed the first race in Tignes, France, two weeks ago due to a knee operation, made his season start a perfect one by dominating., If there was any question about his ability to come back it was answered today.

Leading after the qualification “Mr. Bombastic” was unbeatable. “It was a super comeback,” he said, “I didn’t expect it to be like this since I only had two days of training after a two months break so it’s unbelievable ¿ I never expected this to happen. I had two or three really nice runs, especially the first one and I just couldn’t believe it when I got down to the finish so I kept on concentrated ¿ I’m so happy that I worked it out again. To be honest, I’m not sure what will happen in tomorrow’s PGS race but that doesn’t touch me too much ¿ I proved that I was always there… maybe Sunday will be better again, after some recovery from nine runs today.”

Bozzetto also concluded a hattrick for the French team which has won three consecutive Parallel Slalom races at Ischgl – Mathieu Chiquet in 1998, Bozzetto 1999 and 2000. Slovenian rider Dejan Kosir was close today, especially in the first final duel when Bozzetto beat him by seven hundreds of a second. “I’m happy with second place,” he said, “I trained very hard but I didn’t really knew where I was. I made it a safe run in the qualification since I wanted to make it to the finals, let it go then and see what happened. I kept very concentrated and attacked once I made it to the final duel but in the second run I could not get enough grip at the pitch and fell so maybe next time.”

Nicolas Huet from France faced Sweden’s Richard Rikardsson in the consolation round for third place and managed to claim the bronze. “Third place is fine for me,” he said, “but it was a shame that Mathieu and I raced against each other already in the semi finals ¿ we both would have loved to fight for first and second. However, it’s great that the French made it again and it looks like none of the other nations is able to win a Parallel Slalom at Ischgl. It’s great that we continued the ‘Grand Slam’ today.”

Karine Ruby completed the French success by winning the womens’ race. “I was a bit disappointed after Tignes (she dropped out right before the finish when she was leading in the Giant Slalom),” she said, “and I didn’t really know what to expect in the Slalom so I’m very happy. The conclusion of last season and the training over the summer gave me a lot of confidence so I was really motivated.”

Sara Fischer from Sweden faced Ruby in the finals and was leading the first run with just one hundred of a second but finally had to leave it with the French. “It feels very nice,” she said, “of course, I wanted to win but Karine was so well and just too fast today so maybe next time. Anyway, it was a lot of fun racing today.”

Italy’s Marion Posch met Isabelle Blanc from France in the consolation round for third place and finally claimed the bronze 15 hundreds of a second ahead of the French. “Parallel Slalom is my favourite discipline,” Posch said, “and it was good to start into the season like this. I crashed in the penultimate race last season and could not continue. That’s why it was so important to me today.”

Parallel Giant Slalom is scheduled for tomorrow and a second one for Sunday.